Masquerade
by m.jules
Summary: Everyone watches everything from behind their masks.


**Title:** Masquerade  
**Author:** m.jules  
**Pairing:** Mal/River, Zoe/Wash  
**Prompt:** 95 - New Year  
**Rating:** PG  
**Author's Notes:** Major spoilers for Serenity. Read at your own risk. **artemis2050** and Firedog get props for beta.

* * *

It was Kaylee's idea, the New Year's party. Nobody talked about it, and no one really acknowledged it, but the young, cheerful mechanic hated being so happy when so many others had lost so much. It wasn't that she didn't miss Wash, but her romance with Simon had softened her already tender personality. Zoe, on the other hand, had become even harder. She did her duty as Mal's second, steady without the slightest waver, except for one thing. She never went into the cockpit anymore.

It was one of those things that everyone noticed, but no one -- not even Jayne -- mentioned aloud. You just didn't point out a crack in Zoe's armor.

So when Kaylee announced the New Year's party as an unsubtle attempt to bring some cheer aboard Serenity and Inara suggested that they make it a masquerade, something inside River's head vibrated as if to say, "This is important. Pay attention." And she did.

As the weeks went by, ticked off faithfullly by the sheer habit of superficial distinctions (night and day were nonexistent in the black) and everyone made plans for the shindig -- and if it hadn't been Kaylee's idea and if she didn't have her heart so firmly set on it , probably next to no one would have participated, but for her sake, even Mal submitted to Inara's costuming genius with only mild complaints -- River watched Zoe more and more closely.

The night of the party, with Jayne fiddling with a strap on his gaudy red Chinese mask ("How the gorram hell does this thing work anyhows?") and Kaylee all aflutter as she sighed over Simon's blue satin half-mask, only two people noticed when Zoe slipped away from the festivities in the cargo hold.

Mal caught River's eye and read her intentions in her posture. His eyes glittered blue behind the black eye-mask Inara had picked out for him, and he nodded almost imperceptibly. Smiling, River swept over to him with graceful strides and a swish of her long dress and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, the feathers on her own cat's-eye mask tickling him as she did.

"Hero," she whispered at his ear, tapping on the satin ribbon that secured his mask, and he chuckled a little.

Without hesitation, River exited the party with as little ado as Zoe herself had and crept toward the cockpit. As she had suspected, Zoe sat gingerly on the edge of the pilot's chair, holding a dinosaur in her hands. Her white mask lay on the console, its silk ribbons rippling toward the floor like tears. Zoe hadn't dressed for the masquerade except for the expensive facade that Inara had loaned her, but even her practical everyday clothes had lost some of their harshness.

River lingered by the door, refusing to come in or let herself be seen. Zoe wasn't wearing her mask and it was rude to catch people unawares like that. Scared folks when you saw their real faces, 'specially when sometimes their masks were all that held them together.

River was just about to leave her alone and rejoin the party when Kaylee's voice echoed through the walls of the ship, "Hey, where'd Zoe go?" She watched as Zoe sat up straight, returned the dinosaur to the console, and reached for the white mask. Tucking herself into the shadows, River waited until Zoe was well past her before she made a move to rejoin the party.

When she did, she sidled up next to Mal, who was watching his second-in-command intently as she fended off dance offers from Jayne.

"White is the color of mourning," River said without preamble, and Mal glanced at her, startled. She looked up at him seriously, the deep purple of her mask emphasizing the gravity in her eyes, even if the feathers on the side of it detracted from the effect a bit. "You look good in black."

In an instant, she was gone from his side, hovering near the edges of the makeshift dance floor where Inara was waltzing gracefully with Simon and Kaylee was looking on with only a hint of jealousy and everyone watched everything from behind their masks.


End file.
